Florida State didn’t become a first round victim. It all business for the Seminoles as they beat Florida Gulf Coast University 86-80 Thursday night.
FGCU earned the named “Dunk City” after a historic run in the 2013 tournament. The Eagles were hoping for history to repeat itself against the well coached Florida State Seminoles.
Ironically, the first possessions for both teams resulted in dunks. It was Brandon Goodwin ‘s 20 points that keep the Eagles within four at the half. Seminoles head coach Leonard Hamilton made a change defensively to slow down the high-flying Eagles penetration to the basket and the switches off the inbound on offense.
FSU deciding to press the Eagles worked out tremendously and the Noles were able to collect the Eagles missed shots, outrebounding the Eagles by 20 in the contest.
Despite the 16 turnovers for FSU, FGCU went cold and started committing turnovers. The most notable one, a missed dunk from Goodwin as he was denied by the rim attempting to put the NBA prospect Johnathan Isaacs on a poster.
Dwayne Bacon who played like an All-star tonight taunted the Eagles with 25 points and a baseline dunk that was so far the dunk of the tourney. Issacs who is projected to be a lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft also showed up big for the Noels as he finished with a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Next for Florida State will be #11 Xavier on Saturday.
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